Bliss and happiness and sunshine in my heart!

The moment that really fills me with happiness every day is to sit down to lunch with my darling - though sometimes not so darling - husband - and our sons.
Christos always sits down too early, which annoys me, as I don´t want to sit at the table for an hour nipping tiny, tiny bits of a meze and staring at the main course getting cold or smelling the main course cooking, waiting for the kids to come home from school.
Besides - what should we talk about for an entire hour?!
We only have one principle in our family, and that is: We eat lunch together.
So, at 1 pm, it normally goes like this:
Christos: I´m gonna sit down.
Me: What, that early! The kids won´t come for another hour!
Christos: Oh, I just have done enough today.
Then he starts listing up everything he has done since he got up in the morning. Which is not always impressive, but after all we live the good life in Greece. Which is a synonym for sitting at the coffee shop all morning discussing last night´s basket game.
Me: I haven´t started cooking yet, you will have to wait!
Christos: Never mind, I´ll have an ouzo.
He has his ouzo (which is actually his homemade tsipouro), I start cooking and we actually do pass an hour chatting about this and that and other major events while I prepare the food.  And eventually we hear the slam of the door and the bam-bam of the school bags dumped at the floor - and voila - happy family having lunch together.
The boys rarely grace us with more than ten minutes of their presence.  Ten minutes is the minimum required time they have to spend at the table, whether they eat ("Bravo, mamma, spaghetti!") or not ("Yuck - how many times have I said I DO NOT like fish!").
Ten minutes, the four of us, and it makes me feel like the most privileged person in the world.

                                             One of my favorite pictures of the boys...

Melina...

I am currently working on a magazine article about Greece.
Assignment: Write something funny, you know, like the plumber story in Paradiso - it made me laugh so much that I cried!
Sure, I´ll do that. No problem. Easily.
Trying not to repeat myself, and doing a re-phrase of the plumber story, I decided doing some research into Greek music and music lyrics at You Tube.
Yes, I know - that´s why everyone thinks that writing is not a real job. And I am even being paid for this?!
And look what I found...
Melina was such a beauty, so sensual...I love her!
..but of course she died from lung cancer...


And here´s a translation of this song - which has been interpreted by many Greek artists, including Savvopoulos and Haris Alexiou.

Three days, three day I have been separated from you,
three nights, three nights I stay alone.
Like the mountains that are in tears
when the heaven rains.

Shed all your sorrows, young lad,
let´s go for a walk on the moon.

How can I, how can I go out and  walk
remembering, remembering his words?
With the moon, with the moon - how can I sing?
With the moon, with the moon, how can I find comfort?

Curing Olives

Like I wrote in earlier blog post, we harvested our very first olives this year.
An amazing half kilo..or maybe a little bit more.
And today I have been curing my own olives for the very first time. Christos has been curing olives for years, but I have never been very satisfied with the result, so I decided these olives were too precious to be left to him!
Another reason for taking over, is that years ago I tried olives that had been cured in a brine with almonds - they made a lasting impression on my taste buds!

Three full jars!
Now put on a shelf in the storage room - I am looking forward to try them in a couple of weeks.
Read how I did it here.

A very ungreek salad

The characteristic of the Greek kitchen is simplicity. Very basic, no fuss.
Except from the world famous Greek salad, choriatiki, salads rarely consist of more than one or two ingredients.
But of course, even if I live in Greece and love Greek food - I do cook other stuff, too!
Longing for a big salad for lunch, this was put together mainly with what I had in the house - and even the kids loved it!
(One way to cheat children and picky teenagers to eat spinach is to mix it with lettuce, like I have done here).

In this very ungreek salad you find:
Lettuce, finely cut
Spinach leaves, roughly cut
Chicken fillet, cubed
Red onion, sliced
Green apples, sliced and cut in small pieces
Walnuts
Parmesan, flakes
For dressing I used classic vinaigrette.

The mountains

I always tend to post a pictures of the VIEW. Which is the main view in East. The open sky, the fields towards the sea. Forgetting that we actually have a very nice view North, as well.
Or what?

Growing tobacco for cigars

Greeks smoke more cigarettes than any other European nationalities. My dear husband is one of the smokers that work hard to keep Greeks on the top of the statistics - he smokes at least two packets a day.
When I try to tell him that he needs to stop, both because of his health and because of our finances, his eyes go glassy, he looses attention and suddenly starts doing something else.
And lights another ziggy.
Because my talk makes him stressed.
But even he realizes now, with the latest tax on cigarettes, that smoking is a very expensive habit.
So earlier this summer he came home with two tobacco plants that he planted in the vegetable garden. And now the leaves are hanging in the shed above his old motorbike to dry.

Greece used to be big on growing tobacco - actually Christos grew up with tobacco farming. Interestingly, while you can grow as much tobacco as you like, you are not allowed to smoke your own crop. I think this says all about how nasty the tobacco industry is - because of course, they have paid to get that law through, forcing people to smoke fabric produced cigarettes that are stuffed with chemicals, including things that make the smoke penetrate deeper into your lungs and make you more easily addicted.
I honestly suspect that smoking organically, home grown tobacco won´t do much harm.
Meanwhile, there is a way to go.
The tobacco has to be rolled into cigars.
And the true way to do that is supposedly on the thigh of a Cuban woman.
Which gives me hope that my husband finally will go on that trip to Cuba he keeps promising to take...

On surviving without IKEA, Internet and Starbucks coffee

Most people love to tell how much they hate IKEA. Or rather, shopping at IKEA.
But I love it. I love it that much that I dare say that my life here in Eleftheres is much better because there´s now an IKEA only a two hours drive away.
Whenever I have to pick up or deliver guests at the airport I pop by IKEA, as it´s next door.
And every time it feels like coming home.
I love hanging around in there, looking at all the beautiful stuff, the exhibitions...It gives me a sense of who I really am: Scandinavian. Which of course equalizes style, good taste and natural looks.  
IKEA feels like it actually belongs to me, at least partly - and it´s only because I am such a tolerant and generous person that I don´t throw out all those Greeks wandering around in the shop, touching stuff and shouting and eating Swedish meatballs in the restaurant like they were keftedakia.
Here in Greece, for tax reasons, we have to collect all our receipts. And if you look in my receipts drawer you´ll find a few from IKEA. Though the main thing at IKEA is not shopping. It´s being there.
The shopping I do on Internet.
Clothes, shoes, books, music. Yoga mats for my workshop. A playground for our hotel. And most recently: A swimming pool.
How could I ever survive without IKEA and Internet?
Rather: How did I survive?
Because I did.
When I moved here in 1993 my gorgeous Greek had just get a telephone installed in his apartment, after having waited for three years. Our long distance relationship was based on letters (you know, those you wrote with pen on a paper and put in an envelope and sent off from the post office) and phone calls when he worked night shift and didn´t have a boss around.
The gorgeous Greek lived in a flat with a camping table, camping chairs and a sofa where the seat fell to the floor if more than one person sat on it, so it was obvious, at least to me, that we needed some new stuff when I moved in.As we were getting married, my in-laws gave us money for furniture, as tradition is in Greece (my parents should have provided the house, but somehow they missed that!)
I was in tears! IKEA hadn´t opened in Greece yet. Here I had loads of money in hand, and everything I looked at in the shops was so ugly, so bad taste and so synthetic-looking that it almost made me move back to my dear tasty, stylish Scandinavia.
But I wiped my tears, clinched my teeth, bought the least ugly pieces in the shop, and stayed.
Surviving without Internet was actually easier, as I didn´t know what it was.
Just as Starbucks coffee (never tasted one).
Or the Oprah show (never seen it).
But I hear some people are addicted to both.

I love lists!

I love writing lists that much that I have decided to write a list tomorrow of everything I need to do.
Why not write it today?
Because now I have something to really look forward to!:)
This is the first day in a long time that we have no guests. It´s so calm and quiet that I don´t quite know what to do. Except to scrub the kitchen.
You know what it´s like - you´ve been busy so long and have lots of stuff to do that you simply need to postpone. And when you finally have the time to do it you can´t remember what it was.
Eh..at least that´s how it feels like with an aging brain like mine.
Too much wine - I am the living proof it kills brain cells.
And another reason that I am a to-do-list-lover.

Early evening full moon

I don´t need a TV. I can just look out.
Isn´t this view amazing?
The full moon rising in east, and the island of Thassos on the horizon.

A Harley in the yard

Some of our guests travel more stylish than others...

Oh-uups!

A car with foreign plates drove up in front of the restaurant last night and out jumped three persons:
"Hi, we have booked a room for tonight!"
Oh..uhu...I had completely forgotten..!
Which would have made me very embarrassed if it wasn´t for the fact that my friend Mary and I at that point were half way through a bottle of champagne I had got for my birthday...
Guests were placed at the restaurant with a carafe of red and Mary and I ran upstairs, cleaned the apartment and put on new sheets at the speed of light. Or as fast as it can be done with a quart bottle of champagne inside.
Our guests took it very nicely (but that´s the kind of guests that come to our place - they are always nice!).
Last year, I managed to double book (hey, I have the amazing amount of three apartments to administrate!). Luckily, I discovered it before the guests arrived, so I managed to find a small villa up the street for them for two nights.
As you understand, booking with us might be an adventure.
But all mistakes are compensated. With alcohol. Which is what you probably need when things go (slightly) wrong.

Early morning view

I just love the view from my house and how it changes all the time.
Look at this amazing sky - you can´t avoid being happy when greeted like this first thing in the morning!

Our very first olive harvest

Here they are - our very first own olives! Enough olives to fill a half kilo feta cheese box...
But still - it´s something.
When we bought our land in 2002 there was only a field of weeds and rocks. At least know we dare call it garden.

Fava and white bean falafel

I promised the goddesses to post my recipe for fava and white bean falafel here.

I am glad you liked it!

You need:
250 grams white beans
250 gram fava beans
One big onion
One egg
A bunch of parsley
Salt, pepper
Two stock cubes (optional)
Breadcrumbs

Actually, as it takes quite long to prepare the white beans, I often cook a big portion and keep in the fridge. Then I also have beans for fasoulada, bean soup - and can make the soup in no time. Or the boiled beans can be used in salads.
The white beans need to be soaked in water for a couple of hours (or over night). Throw away the water and boil until very soft. How long it takes depends on the beans, but count about an hour.  I use to add a stock cube to the water, as it adds taste to the beans, but you can also just use salt. Boil the fava beans. Also here you can add a stock cube. When the water boils there´s normally some white fluff that you remove with a sieve. The best thing is to boil the fava until it has become a mash and the water is evaporated. It takes at least half an hour.
Drain the white beans well and add to a big bowl. Add the fava. Blend the onion and parsley with the egg and add to the bean mix. Mix well. Add breadcrumbs until you get a firm dough. Be careful that it´s not to hard.
Use your hands to shape the falafel, dip in breadcrumbs and fry in oil (sunflower or corn) until nicely golden on both sides. Don´t flip the falafel over too early, as it will easily dissolve. You need to clean out your frying pan and change oil between every pan of falafel.
Serve with tzatziki.

The sixth Divine day

Yesterday was the last day with the goddesses - and kyria, mrs, Harikleia came with her grand daughter Chrysa to give Greek dance lessons. Here they show the girls how to dance the syrtaki.

It´s my birthday!

And the goddesses managed to fool me!
Under the pretext of having found a nasty snake in their room I was called in to help.
No snake, only cake!
A surprise PARTY!
The first in my life.
The cake was disgusting, but I laughed as much that I cried.
Absolutely fabulous.
Best birthday gift I can remember!

Thanks, goddesses!

The season is ending

 

I love September and I especially love September on the beach.

 No people. Empty sunbeds.

Or the sunbeds collected, soon to be moved into storage for the winter.

The straw shades taken down from the poles and lying in the sand like small pyramids.

The umbrellas folded.

The toy boats finished playing in the water for this year.

 

The flags worn out from the last months wind and sun.

 

 The baywatch tower abandoned by the life savers.

 

Leaving the beach to the sea gulls and an occasional swimmer.

Wool knickers vs Brazilian

I am a hairy woman (the Leo ascendant is to blame. And my genes. My mum can braid her leg hairs and I am not lying!). 
I do wax my legs in the summer. Sometimes. But the thing about waxing - like any other beauty regime - is that I can´t get it done fast enough, so I never manage to get rid of it all. Or I run out of wax strips before I have finished.
The result becomes kind of au naturel.
Native style,  like Alec Baldwin´s character is calling it in It´s complicated.  
Though he was referring to the bikini line. You know, those hairs that shows on the outside of your bikini pants.
I didn´t even realize that I had such a wild growing bush - my stomach is so big that I need to suck it hard in to be able to see it and you can bet that´s not something I do very often.
But at the beach the other day, one of the goddesses pointed at me and asked:
"Are you wearing your wool knickers today?"
Well, summer is almost ended, winter will arrive and wool knickers will be more useful than a Brazilian thong.
I´ll let my leg hairs grow, too. They are the only fur coat I´ll ever get.

The fifth Divine day

Perfect start of the day: Yoga in the early morning sun in the yard, followed by breakfast. I feel fantastic - and so do the girls, I believe!

Accident!

Poor redhead goddess stepped on a dragon fish. It was so horribly painful that if the doctor had suggested amputation she would have agreed, she told us after.
Instead he gave her painkillers, anti-poisoning and antibiotics.
Mette, who drove the goddess - crying, twisting and moaning from pain - to the hospital, got a double gin and tonic.
If you ever see a fish looking like this don´t put your foot on it:

Do you need a vagina to see if the toilet is dirty?

This is a question I actually ask myself frequently.

I live with three men. And they never seem to see (or smell, for that sake), if the bathroom is dirty. Or the kitchen. Or any other room.

I have to ask my husband or one of my sons to clean the bathroom.  Actually, if that´s what I ask, the only thing that happens is that the mop is swooshed over the floor and that´s it. So I have to ask: can you empty the bins in the bathroom and put in new garbage bags, pour some chlorine into the toilet and brush (with the brush that you´ll find on the floor right to the toilet) until all shit has gone, wipe off the seat, clean the sink and the tap, polish the mirror, add new toilet paper, throw the dirty towels in the dirty laundry bin, replace with clean towels, dust the lamps and wash the shower curtain. And then you can mop the floor.

The other night, a guest was sleeping on a spare mattress in one of the rooms, the spare mattress coming from our sofa. Christos, being asked, carries the mattress back to the living room and leaves it there. So that it can fly onto the bench itself and fluff and place all the pillows nicely on its top, all on its own. Very clever mattress.

Today I asked him to hang the towels I had just washed. He did. And left the rest of the newly washed clothes in the laundry basket - so that they could fly up and hang themselves to dry all by themselves. Very clever washed clothes, too.

When my son Jason is asked to clean the plates he cleans the plates.
And leaves the forks, knives, pots and pans.
(The plates are spotless, though, I must admit that).

This week I have been really busy - in a nice way - with the goddesses staying here. I run from one thing to another and things at home are a bit half to twelve (Norwegian expression).  For instance, I do not always have time to clean up the kitchen after I have cooked before I run off to the restaurant.  
But I am the only one who cares!
 
Seriously, none of the men I live with seems to be bothered that dirty plates and casseroles fill the kitchen counter, that there are spills on the floor and oven, and that the garbage bin is overflowing.

Which leads me back to the question:
Do you need a vagina to see if the toilet is dirty?
Or are the men I live with pigs?

The fourth Divine day

Do I need to add anything?

Bambi!

I have never seen a deer live in my whole life - didn´t even know they existed here. But driving the goddesses to the beach this morning the redhead shouted as we pass an olive grove:
"Bambis!"
"No, probably just a goat," I said.
"Maybe you didn´t wake up yet!" the others said.
But I was orderd to turn back.
And there they were!
Five little deers in an olive grove.

The third Divine day

Here are the goddesses, relaxing in the healing mud baths in Lydia, after their early morning yoga session and breakfast.

 

You don´t see me in the picture. 

I got up at 6.30 to feed my kids and send them off to school, then drive down to Peramos to get that really nice dark break, walk the dog, back home to join yoga session for 15 minutes, saying good bye to Ingrid and Ion, putting on a washing machine, preparing a room for new guest, making breakfast for the goddesses, hanging laundry, putting on new one, eating breakfast,  cleaning rooms, hanging new laundry and driving to the mud baths, getting in....and then, I fell asleep. In the mud.

But in a very far distance I heard a lot of laughter. I do believe the goddesses enjoyed the splash.

Gynecologist stories

I know why women only holidays are so popular. It´s simply so much more FUN to have vacation with the girls than with your hubby.  (OK, strictly, I am not on holidays with these goddesses staying with me know, but it feels like.)
Day two and we´re already onto true gynecologist stories.
(Names and places changed for the sake of anonymity)

Story One: Glam at the Gyn
Linda had an appointment with her gynecologist. Like most women, her life was really busy and she didn´t have time to shower before going, but decided to give her better parts a quick wash. So she grabs a washing cloth she finds on the bath tub, does the job and leaves for her appointment.
At the gyn she gets undressed, gets onto the table, spreads her legs and tries to think about something nice while getting over with it.
"Wow, we´ve made ourselves pretty today," the doctor says as examining her.
Linda thought it was a weird thing to say, but didn´t comment. She gets dressed, pays and leaves. Not thinking about it until she comes home in the afternoon and her six year old daughter asks her:
"Mum, have you seen my glitter?! I had it in a wash cloth on the bath tub!"

Story two: Dr.Kildare
Anna had an appointment with her gynecologist, but as she arrives at the office the secretary tells her that her doctor is ill and that´s she´s got an appointment with her colleague. This other gynecologist is well-known for being both young, handsome, sexy and very kind and caring. Let´s call him Dr.Kildare.
"There´s no way I can undress in front of him," Anna thinks to herself, but before she manages to say that she´d rather come back another day she finds herself in his office. Dr. Kildare greets her with a warm and kind smile and says: "What can I do for you today, Anna?"
Anna stretches out her trembling arms: "My hands hurt real bad!"

The second Divine day

A blue, sunny morning. Glittering ocean and fine white sand.
Starting the day with jogging and walking on the beach, followed by water gymnastics, quiet visualization and breakfast (tortilla wraps with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and feta cheese, water melon for dessert.)
And why are there no photos?
Because idiot me didn´t realize that the battery on the camera was empty!
Lesson learned: No point in having a spare battery if you do not bring it along. Fully charged.
But here´s the beach as it normally looks like this time of the year:

..and here we go!

Early morning Pilates lesson in the yard...
Grey sky, but never mind. At least it´s not too hot.
Actually, I do mind.
I do think my goddesses, who travelled this far, deserve a clear Mediterranean blue sky during their holidays! And it wouldn´t be TOO hot if the sun came out. It would be just perfect. It´s September!

"IN with the stomach and shoulders DOWN from the ears!"
Yes, we´re trying!
"And don´t forget to breathe!"
What? We have to breathe, as well?! That´s a tough one. At least while trying to keep in a belly the size of a potato sack and forcing the shoulders down. I am a writer, for god´s sake - my shoulders are permanently glued to my ears!

"Like this!"
Mette, you just look so beautiful!
In my next life I might get the Pilates exercises just as perfect as this!
Now, when are we gonna have breakfast?

Arrival

Goddesses picked up at Thessaloniki airport.
Dinner at our restaurant. They ate all, except peach sherbet - too much honey, I think. Or were they too full?
Nice women - this will be a great week.
Long journey for all and early bedtime.

Sugar free cereal bars

I tried out a recipe for homemade cereal bars last week - those disappeared in a day or two. Christos was particularly enthusiastic, as he always is if I make something very Greek. No, cereal bars are not very Greek, but they quite resembled pasteli, which is a Greek snack made from almonds or sesame seeds and honey. So you can say the cereal bars and the pasteli are sort of related, in the Greek sense of counting relatives.

My cousin Camilla gave me lots of inputs here - thanks Camilla! So here comes a new and improved recipe, without sugar and butter.

You need:
330 grams/11 oz oat flakes
100 grams/3,5 oz hazel nuts
100 grams/3,5 oz sesame seeds
100 grams/3,5 oz peanuts
100 grams/3,5 oz dried apricots
100 grams/3,5 oz dates (kernel removed)
400 ml/16 fl oz tahini
300 ml/12 fl oz honey
100 ml/3 fl oz coconut milk

Blend the nuts and the oat flakes and roast in the oven on 200 C/400 F for twenty minutes. Blend the apricots and the dates and set aside. In a frying pan melt the tahini and honey, add the coconut milk and the fruit. In a big bowl mix the melted tahinimix with the roasted nuts and seeds. Cover a tray with baking sheet and add the mass, pressing it hard with a wooden spoon. Cover with a baking sheet and continue to press as much as you can to prevent it from dissolve when you cut it. Leave in the fridge until cold. Cut into pieces. Keep cool in a cake box.

Menopause...

All I can say I´m glad it´s not Christos going through this. Than we´d have hell around here.
I know, yeah. Men go through menopause, too. But that´s only psychological. This is WORSE!
But I am a woman.
I am tough.
I can wake up three hundred times during night because I am either to hot or too cold or because my whole body feels like it has been invaded by ants or because Christos has stolen the blanket when I wanted it or put an arm around me when I did not want it as it gets too hot (after 20 years together he should have developed an intuitive sense of when I need an arm and when I do not!).

But then I get up and this is what I look out at!
It´s good to be alive and to feel alive and be a part of the ever changing life. 
Menopausal, as well.

The Goddesses can arrive!

I have been so busy lately preparing for the workshop that starts tomorrow, that I haven´t been able to look forward to it! One week of releasing your inner goddess through exercise, healthy food and excursions - six goddesses are arriving tomorrow afternoon from Denmark and Norway.
After a long period of drought the garden looked awful and needed loads of work (still does, actually, but is presentable now).  Weeding, weeding and weeding! Then there´s all the cleaning... and I honestly have a problem delegating - as no one does the job as good as me, despite that I have a close to perfect cleaning lady that I can call on for help! But I don´t.
Then there are all those minor jobs, like changing light bulbs, painting etc.
And the major job, getting Christos to pick up the goddamn tools that he spreads everywhere. And to cut the "lawn" (if you´re really short sighted the weeds around the house could be mistaken for a lawn when shaved).
But now all this is done! Even the tool picking part.
So I am sitting here with a well deserved glass of red and thinking about how great this will be! My friend Mette, who´s responsible for the workshop, is a fantastic trainer.
Now that I am actually well on top of things, I hope I´ll be able to participate in most of the program  - as that´s the whole point of arranging these workshops (have them come to you, so you don´t need to go to them!:)) 13 hours of yoga, Pilates, dance, areobics and running. Hiking in the Nestos gorge. Visiting winery, including wine tasting (I´ll be good at that!). And everyone´s favorite: The mudbaths!

Lunch at Dyo Vrises

I have said it before: Most people come to Kairos Garden as guests and leave as friends. Like Ingrid and Ion. We´ve had a very good time the two weeks they have been staying with us. Today we took them out for lunch at Dyo Vrises, a taverna hidden in a platan tree grove at the foot of the Pangeo mountain.

The menu at the taverna is very simple: Grilled meat, vegetables and salads. No fuss food. I like it!

But what I like mostly, is that this is such a cool and refreshing oasis when the days are hot. Because despite being September, it´s still very warm.

Nice dreams...

Just woke up. Had this very nice dream about my exes, the one more sexy than the other, fighting over me...Please do not analyze, just let me enjoy it!
I like nights with good dreams. Makes you feel like you´re living two lives. One night day and one day day, if you see what I mean.
Sometimes I order my subconscious before bedtime: Let me dream something nice tonight!

Once I got to spend the night with Gabriel Byrne in a jacuzzi...
That´s what one call a good night sleep!

September

I love September.
The tender days, still sunny. Fin de saison and the beginning of something new.
My inner eternal school girl is so excited of what the new year of learning will bring.
Now it´s time to clear the garden of dried flowers, leaves, grass and plants.
It´s time to go for long walks again.
And to enjoy the beaches and the sea, now that there are hardly anyone there, for another month or two before winter sets in.

We´ll have olives this year!
Seven years ago, this was a field of rocks and weeds. Now we actually got something that resembles a garden. Including olive trees WITH olives!

Homemade cereal bars

As school is starting soon, I am looking for healthy snacks that I can put in my kids school bags - hoping to prevent them from eating those ready made Greek pitas when they get hungry, as they consist mainly of fat and white flour. Yummy, but of absolutely no nutritious value. Not what you need to keep the brain working!

So I am trying out homemade cereal bar recipes - I made these with oat flakes, peanuts, sesame seed and some Greek nuts that I don´t know what are called in English (or any other language, for that´s sake).  Next time I´ll add almonds and dry fruit. Basically, you can use any kind of cereals, nuts and seeds you like. Then you need the "glue" - I used tahini, brown raw cane sugar,  honey and butter. Tahini could be replaced with peanut butter and drop the honey if you don´t like it.
First of all, I mashed the nuts in the mortar (you can also put them in a plastic bag and roll the baking pin over). Then I put the seeds, oat flakes and the mashed nuts in a baking tray and let in the oven on 200 C/400 F to roast, taking the tray out a few times to shake the content. It takes 15-20 minutes for the cereals to get slightly brown.
Close the oven, add the cereals to a bowl. In a frying pan, melt sugar, honey, tahini and butter. Then mix very well with the cereals, even using your hands. Put a sheet of baking paper in a tray and add the cereals. Cover with a baking sheet and press the mass as well together as possible - you don´t want it to dissolve when you cut it.
Leave in the fridge to cool. Remove from tray and cut into slices. The slices can be wrapped in plastic ready to take with you, or store in a cake tin.
More healthy recipes on my website My Greek Recipes.

Coming out from the heat

Living with the heat we´ve had most of August is like living in a cocoon. Or living partly. Temporarily. You can´t do much, because it´s too hot. Too hot to go to town, too hot to walk, too hot to go to the beach. Too hot to sleep.
Your main thoughts are on how to get cool: Where is the coolest shade, what should I eat or drink to feel drosero, refreshed? When can I do the jobs I have to do, without the heat killing me? (Answer: At dawn or after sunset).
Of course, there are pleasant sides to this, too: Long, long swims in the sea. Long, long lunches with a glass of chilled tsipouro. Ice cream. Cold beer. Sleeping under the stars.
But enough is enough.
Last night, we had a terrific thunderstorm, followed by half an hour of heavy rain. And then the temperatures dropped remarkably.
And suddenly life is back to normal. I feel like bursting with energy after having done so little, so long.
Now, where do I start?!